In the music video by Beyoncé called “Formation” the visual motif that I chose to use was of her dressed on the red dress with white writing on it.   Beyoncé is a known supporter of the black lives matter movement and uses this motif to strengthen her argument for change by showing some of the oppression that the black community faces.  The background of this scene is made to be very bleak so that Beyoncé stands out more along with the use of close ups on her and some full body shots to let you see more of her features and to also let the viewers see what is going on around her.  The background of this motif is used to help strengthen the argument for change by making the background a poverty stricken area.  To do this she shows how things were in New Orleans after a massive natural disaster that caused a mass amount of flooding, this could possibly be a portrayal of hurricane Katerina.  In this video she shows how many lives were lost, especially from areas that were considered to be poverty stricken, because in these types of areas there would be a large amount of people living in smaller houses that were very close to the neighbors, much like the background shows. 

This motif shows up originally in the beginning of the music video (0:23-0:29) with her on top of a police car.  This scene uses a close up shot and then moves out to a long shot, this is done to make Beyoncé the focus to begin with and then to show the viewer more of the background.  The first thing that the music video says is “What happened at the New Wil’ins”, this is put into the video to help the viewers understand that the motif is about a majority black populated area.  This set of lyrics also helps to put the background into perspective, since New Orleans has had some bad flooding in the past.  In this part of the video Beyoncé is showing how the population of poverty stricken areas are looked down upon and the injustice that they have to deal with.  With Beyoncé being a known supporter of the black lives matter movement, this scene is used to show the hardships that black people have had to endure and still do endure.    This also shows how in poverty stricken areas the land is typically very flat, so once it starts flooding there isn’t really anywhere for people to go and there are a lot of houses placed closely together, therefore making the fatality rate even higher. 

This visual motif appears again in the music video very briefly between two other motifs. (0:56-1:00) During this part the lyrics say, “Earned all this money but they never take the country out me” this set of lyrics is used here because of the scene flashing from her being dressed nicer and in a nice home to her in the flood waters, then back to her being dressed fancier and in a nicer area. Through these scenes a long shot is used to help the viewer see the differences in the background as well as the way Beyoncé is dressed.  This shot is used with this set of lyrics to help show that Beyoncé thinks change is crucial and that everyone should have equal opportunities, this could be because she also had to work to become a star and thinks others of the black community should have the same opportunities.  Through connecting herself as she is now to the scene of the flooded area it helps to strengthens her argument for a change in the way people view and treat the black community.

The final scene in the music video flashes back to this visual motif, in this scene it shows her and the cop car she is on top of going under in the flood water. (1:41-1:49) This scene shows how people who were not rescued and reiterates how they would have had to seek higher ground to escape the flood waters, but there seems to be very flat and the houses are not very big it would have been rather hard to get onto anything but the top of cars.  This scene shows how people of African American decent who lived in poverty stricken areas, would have been less likely to be found, because it would take a lot of resources to find and save them all, as shown by how closely together the houses are in the background.  This scene is places directly after a flash of a wall that says “Stop shooting us” (4:24) this ties the reason for the cop car into the video, since these type of areas would be more heavily patrolled by cops.  The reasoning behind this is that there is a lot of oppression in the black community and the community is fighting back against it.  At the end of this scene they do a close up bird’s eye shot so that you see Beyoncé go under the water and watch her breathe leave her.  To emphasize how many people would have not been able to be saved and would have died due to drowning in the flood waters, because of a lack of resources in particular areas or even a lack of desire to attempt to save everyone.

In the music video “Formation” Beyoncé uses the visual motif of her in the red dress with white writing, she ties it into the rest of the music video and the overall message of the video.  Some of the ways she does this is through the lyric choice she uses and the scenes surrounding this motif.  This motif shows that the video is about the oppression of black lives and the black lives matter movement.  This motif is used to help strengthen the argument for change by showing how this where and in some areas still are vs. what the black community is doing to fight back against the oppression such as marches, police barricades, and people now being able to be whatever they want for the most part.  The visual motif also has a very different background for the rest of the video, to show that changes are happening and that these movements are helping to make black lives in America better.  There are parts of the music video where she flashes between the motif and a more upper class looking scene.  Through this she is showing that it is possible for change we just have to allow the change to happen and work together as a society.
